tools and activities for leading group meetings
There are lots of kinds of power. Corporations have money. Governments have police and military. What is our power? People power — that means we build a base of people who are ready to be active. So how do we build a local base of support?
Building a movement isn’t just about carrying out an action. Movement-building is about growing relationships, and growing people’s sense of power. For that, we offer ways to get people more deeply involved. The concept of the ladder of engagement can make sure we are inviting people to make a deeper commitment.
A young organiser was asking for advice on how to be a better organiser. An older organiser replied, “You are selfish—you take all this work and do it yourself. But other people want to participate and help out. They need you to be more giving and give them meaningful work so they can feel part of the organisation.” Those are wise words—and true for many of us. So how do we get others involved by giving work away? One tool to help us with this is: the menu of tasks.
7 behaviors we can use right away to strengthen ourselves, so we can keep taking more and more powerful and strategic actions
Meditation is like a bird with two wings – one is stopping and the other is deep looking. In sitting meditation, we always start with stopping. We stop the mind from ceaseless thinking and wandering by bringing the mind back, first to the breath, and then to the body.
Many people are finding themselves exhausted from the never-ending video calls and virtual experiences. It is not that they do not want the option of connecting in digital spaces, but that they are finding them emotionally and energetically costly. It is crucial for you to pace yourself in this time of physical distancing.
To teach empathy on climate impacts
A five-hour participatory training on climate science. Easily divided into different sections so you can grab different sections and tools you might want to use for a training.
Movies to learn about climate change
To teach empathy on climate impacts
A handout to more effectively talk about climate change
A treasure trove of online interactive and participatory tools in one place
Some Types of Closing Circles: Affirmation Circle Stand in a circle. Each person gets a chance to share something they...
This is a very simple tool. It’s often used for introductions or in decision-making to hear opinions from each person. Each person is asked to share a response to some question.
Elicitive Tools for Facilitation
The mingle (also called milling) allows lots of interactions to happen between participants at the same time. Participants get a chance to talk to each other in one-on-one encounters and to carry out a task. It’s very effective and highly flexible activity!
Consider a common problem for many groups: keeping new members engaged. We may see people join our meetings but never return. Sometimes we just forgot to give them information about when or where the next meeting is. But oftentimes, it’s because we haven’t listened well to them finding out what motivates them, what inspires them, and what tasks would excite them (rather than just being told what tasks they should volunteer for).
This highly flexible tool can be done in pairs. It’s great if you’re trying to bring people to a deeper inner awareness, or encourage creativity or flexible thinking, or just get people into an open, curious place about a topic area.
In a sociogram, participants place their bodies in positions that represent something about themselves. It’s a way to help people think more deeply about what they think—and share opinions within a group.
A treasure trove of online interactive and participatory tools in one place
Meetings are occasions when people come together to get something done, whether it is sharing information or making decisions. They may be good, bad, or neutral.
Here are a few energizers you can use with groups: Yes Let’s (or Let’s All) The trainer explains that creativity...
Imagine a group that has come up with five really solid campaign proposals. Even the most optimistic member of the group knows the group didn’t really have the capacity to run all of them. So how does a group move from a number of different proposals to making a decision? Here are some tips that can help your group make decisions.
A treasure trove of online interactive and participatory tools in one place
Without being face-to-face it can be hard to benefit from all the wisdom of a group. However, that doesn’t make it impossible. This tool is a way to efficiently get input from the group by getting everyone to open a shared online document and write ideas.
Conference calls should be interesting. Like any meeting, they become boring when they are always the same—and there’s nothing unusual or unexpected. So maybe you want to try spicing up your next conference call or video chat with games!
Online meetings can be a lot of fun! Here are a few ideas to make your meetings exciting, educational, and effective.
As more groups are working online, there’s interest in exploring more things we can do with online resources. One of the things that we can do is create google documents (or other shared documents) and have people on a conference call look at the same document. But what about all the ways we can have people write on the document together? Here are a few options that show us what is possible is limitless.
Note: These methods of creating small groups require those small groups to be able to have their own conference call...
Games over video chat or on a conference call? Yep! Conference calls should be interesting. Like any meeting, they become...
Journalists don’t cover opinions (that’s for the Opinion section of the newspaper). They cover news — something that is new, preferably dramatic and surprising, and connected to current affairs or issues already being covered in the media. This is a challenge for us because the news is not built for covering on-going slow-burn problems well, like the warming of the planet. Here are some tips to help an action be more newsworthy:
There are lots of kinds of power. Corporations have money. Governments have police and military. What is our power? People power — that means we build a base of people who are ready to be active. So how do we build a local base of support?
Here’s a chance to practice creating new actions or tactics for your group. It supports creativity and can be a chance to apply strategy lessons taught in earlier activities. It’s quick and guaranteed to get a few new tactics.
Building a movement isn’t just about carrying out an action. Movement-building is about growing relationships, and growing people’s sense of power. For that, we offer ways to get people more deeply involved. The concept of the ladder of engagement can make sure we are inviting people to make a deeper commitment.
350 staffer Sarah from Egypt has been using a method called appreciative inquiry. That approach centers around the belief that groups make their best progress when they they focus on the skills they do well. When a group says they aren’t good at communication, for example, this approach asks of the group: “Okay, but when you’re the best at communication—what does that look like?” The idea is that seeing what you’re lacking doesn’t help you know what to do more of. Instead focus on what resources you have and how to expand and grow those.
Campaigns aren’t won all at once; instead, they are won through a series of actions. Yet, too often, we design only one action ahead of time. That can be a problem – when that action is over, people want to know what comes next. Right after the action they are energized and ready to do the next thing, and we lose that energy if we don’t have the next step. This tool is about helping us plan ahead and keep momentum. It’s a great tool to use after people have been thinking about possible tactics, or near the end of a campaign workshop to finalise a plan.
Power-mapping can help you to identify targets and focus your strategy. The idea is to map out your potential targets, and the institutions and individuals who influence your target, so you can begin to understand possible ways to impact them. A power map can be a useful visual tool to help your team understand power, and see possibilities for campaigning.
The goal of this activity is straightforward: getting people to create a timeline of what they have been up to in the last, say, six months. We encourage reflection in small groups so that you get a wide range of input and more chances for participation. Plus, small groups are another way of getting participants to work with each other, especially if you encourage people to get into groups with people they don’t as well or don’t work with as often.
A strategy tool to examine the range of social forces and groups, spread across a spectrum, from those who are the most dedicated opponents to those who are the most active supporters. This tool can uncover how tactics need to be planned in relation to whether or not they attract key allies; encourage more optimistic mobilisation efforts through a realization that it is not necessary to win over everyone to our point of view; and assess where a group needs to do more research related to allies.
By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule. - Gene Sharp • The Politics of Nonviolent Action
A young organiser was asking for advice on how to be a better organiser. An older organiser replied, “You are selfish—you take all this work and do it yourself. But other people want to participate and help out. They need you to be more giving and give them meaningful work so they can feel part of the organisation.” Those are wise words—and true for many of us. So how do we get others involved by giving work away? One tool to help us with this is: the menu of tasks.
350 staffer Sarah from Egypt has been using a method called appreciative inquiry. That approach centers around the belief that groups make their best progress when they they focus on the skills they do well. When a group says they aren’t good at communication, for example, this approach asks of the group: “Okay, but when you’re the best at communication—what does that look like?” The idea is that seeing what you’re lacking doesn’t help you know what to do more of. Instead focus on what resources you have and how to expand and grow those.
Campaigns aren’t won all at once; instead, they are won through a series of actions. Yet, too often, we design only one action ahead of time. That can be a problem – when that action is over, people want to know what comes next. Right after the action they are energized and ready to do the next thing, and we lose that energy if we don’t have the next step. This tool is about helping us plan ahead and keep momentum. It’s a great tool to use after people have been thinking about possible tactics, or near the end of a campaign workshop to finalise a plan.
Power-mapping can help you to identify targets and focus your strategy. The idea is to map out your potential targets, and the institutions and individuals who influence your target, so you can begin to understand possible ways to impact them. A power map can be a useful visual tool to help your team understand power, and see possibilities for campaigning.
The goal of this activity is straightforward: getting people to create a timeline of what they have been up to in the last, say, six months. We encourage reflection in small groups so that you get a wide range of input and more chances for participation. Plus, small groups are another way of getting participants to work with each other, especially if you encourage people to get into groups with people they don’t as well or don’t work with as often.
A strategy tool to examine the range of social forces and groups, spread across a spectrum, from those who are the most dedicated opponents to those who are the most active supporters. This tool can uncover how tactics need to be planned in relation to whether or not they attract key allies; encourage more optimistic mobilisation efforts through a realization that it is not necessary to win over everyone to our point of view; and assess where a group needs to do more research related to allies.
By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule. - Gene Sharp • The Politics of Nonviolent Action
A treasure trove of online interactive and participatory tools in one place
In Samoa, mats (fala) are an important part of culture. The concept of Vevela le Fala (literally “hot mat”) is to give space for people to speak honest truths about the group. It can be used as a conflict resolution tool or a chance to do deep reflection.
This is an easy way to welcome the different people in the room, for us to be in touch with their mood, and to help make different connections. We like this activity because it can be done in a group of five or a group of one-hundred (it can also be done in any seating arrangement – a circle, large auditorium, etc.).
Four personality tendencies in team-building
This personal reflection tool uses drawing, story-telling, and sharing to help a group get to know each other better. It is a great way to connect and deepen people’s commitment to the issue and movement.
CALL AND RESPONSE SONGS Teaching songs can take a lot of time—and if you have a very multicultural group, chances...
Building a movement isn’t just about carrying out an action. Movement-building is about growing relationships, and growing people’s sense of power. For that, we offer ways to get people more deeply involved. The concept of the ladder of engagement can make sure we are inviting people to make a deeper commitment.
Inclusion is the intention of the diversity welcome. It can be long or short. The more things present that can be named, the more likely the participants are to feel welcome. It is a ritual, so the repetitive phrasing can help: “Welcome… welcome…” Take your time with it!
Here are a few energizers you can use with groups: Yes Let’s (or Let’s All) The trainer explains that creativity...
350 staffer Sarah from Egypt has been using a method called appreciative inquiry. That approach centers around the belief that groups make their best progress when they they focus on the skills they do well. When a group says they aren’t good at communication, for example, this approach asks of the group: “Okay, but when you’re the best at communication—what does that look like?” The idea is that seeing what you’re lacking doesn’t help you know what to do more of. Instead focus on what resources you have and how to expand and grow those.
A group in Fiji gathering to talk about the possibility of using canoes to stop giant coal shipments from reaching their destination. That action required risk, and risk requires group trust and the willingness to learn and try something new. So facilitators used this tool to start a conversation about how people “maximise” and “minimise” their learning. This highly adaptable tool builds trust and honesty amongst the group and creates a space where people can help each other learn more deeply.
The goal of this activity is straightforward: getting people to create a timeline of what they have been up to in the last, say, six months. We encourage reflection in small groups so that you get a wide range of input and more chances for participation. Plus, small groups are another way of getting participants to work with each other, especially if you encourage people to get into groups with people they don’t as well or don’t work with as often.
A five-hour participatory training on climate science. Easily divided into different sections so you can grab different sections and tools you might want to use for a training.
An online workshop design to introduce an action group to the basic concepts of finance campaigning
An online workshop design to help a group think of recruitment techniques in these times
An online workshop design to help a group brainstorm its own options for creative actions
An online workshop design to introduce the Movement Action Plan
A generic online workshop design to help an action group assess its own health
A treasure trove of online interactive and participatory tools in one place